Christianity Today: "Nearly a quarter of a century ago, just as the Religious Right was blossoming, Richard John Neuhaus put it this way: 'Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the first and final assertion Christians make about all of reality, including politics. Believers now assert by faith what one day will be manifest to the sight of all: Every earthly sovereignty is subordinate to the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. The church is the bearer of that claim.' Theologian Stanley Hauerwas, no political ally of Neu-haus, extended the point in a recent interview: "Chris-tians' first political responsibility is to be the church, and by being the church...understand that their first political loyalty is to God, and the God we worship as Christians, [is] not first and foremost about making democracy work, but about the truthful worship of the true God.'"

Roderick Conway Morris in IHT: "One of the worst periods of suppression...under the Emperor Diocletian, almost immediately preceded...[t]he Edict of Milan of 313, [which] declared not only general freedom of wor-ship, but mentioned the Christians by name....The prime author of the edict was Constantine, then one of the joint rulers of the Roman empire.... In 330, he inaug-urated a new capital bearing his name on the shores of the Bosporus, and it would remain a bastion of Chris-tianity...for more than 1,100 years....The long-term im-plications for...art of Christianity's official status were enormous, but what was the impact during this early... period? This is expertly examined and illustrated by 'Constantine the Great'...a gathering of more than 250 pieces of sculpture, mosaic, painting, ivories, glass and other objects from numerous European sources.”

AP via ABC News: "The state's $51 billion budget...in-cludes funding for 14,000 children. The state will pay $4,250 for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and $5,000 for high schoolers. Husted's staff was unable to provide a total figure for the funding. Support-ers of school choice have worked to set up and expand programs since 2002, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Cleveland's program which includes religious schools did not violate the separation of church and state. Voucher measures in seven states failed this year.... In Ohio, however, lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House and Senate expanded [Gov.] Taft's or-iginal proposal that would have provided vouchers to 2,600 students....Only Florida and Wisconsin offer voucher programs similar to Ohio's."

Hanna Rosin, Washington Post: "'When you're talk-ing to a pastor he could be inspired by God, etc., but he may not have the scholarship,' says Rep. Dana Roh-rabacher (Calif.), one of several Republicans who refer to Lapin affectionately as 'my rabbi.' 'When you're talk-ing to Rabbi Lapin you know you're getting an expert...' Lapin is in many ways an evangelical Christian's ster-eotype of a rabbi: ...In his speeches and on his radio show he takes the Torah at its word and quotes exten-sively from it. For evangelicals who are used to reading about Jews as God's chosen people, he solves an es-sential mystery: 'A lot of people are surprised when they leave church and encounter...Jews who are liberal ...," says conservative activist Grover Norquist... 'Lapin is the opposite of that.'"

Variety.com: "Americans who are stricter about their re-ligious doctrine are actually more likely to see films rated R for violence than those who are less conservative. That's according to a MarketCast study presented at Wednesday's Integrate '05 conference, co-sponsored by Variety. The study, which examined whether political and cultural attitudes affect what movies people watch, found that the habits of Red State fundamentalists aren't that different from Blue State types. The analysis was based on a survey of 1,000 Americans and presented by Mar-ketCast president Joseph Helfgot, vice president and general manager Henry Shapiro and managing director Karen Hermelin. 'Our data has shown that most people, even the most religious, are quite satisfied with their moviegoing,' Shapiro said. 'They like what they see.'"

"From what they’ve heard, the Wallners vigorously disa-gree with the central tenets of Love Won Out. 'I think Dr. Dobson is on a campaign to destroy the homosexual community,' Bob Wallner said. Focus on the Family says it is doing everything it can to prove him wrong. It wel-comed the Wallners and other representatives of gay and lesbian rights groups into its conference and did not con-front them. When activists 'come in and hear the speak-ers, they are...very surprised to hear a message of hope and healing and challenge to the church,' Dr. Bill Maier, vice president and psychologist in residence for Focus on the Family, said in an interview ahead of the conference. But opinions are frequently dogmatic. Mike Haley...a speaker at the conference, said some speakers had got-ten death threats, a not-uncommon occurrence...."  

Gene Edward Veith in World: "After interviewing over 3,000 teenagers, the social scientists summed up their beliefs: (1) 'A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.' (2) 'God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.' (3) 'The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good....' (4) 'God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except when needed to resolve a problem.' (5) 'Good people go to heaven when they die.' Even these secular researchers recognized that this creed is a far cry from Christianity, with no place for sin, judgment, salvation, or Christ. Instead, most teenagers believe in a combination of works righteousness...psychological well-being, and a non-interfering god....'Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.'”

Agape Press: "Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family said by ruling against the display of the Ten Commandments in Kentucky courtrooms—but, in a separate decision, stating a granite monument in Texas depicting the Decalogue is constitutional—the Supreme Court 'tore a hole through the First Amendment.' ...'This was no affirmation of the right of religious expression,' he said in reference to the Texas ruling. He...feels that ruling essentially stated: 'It's okay to keep a Ten Com-mandments monument on state-owned land, so long as you don't consider what's written on the state tablets to be anything more than empty words from a bygone era
....' Dr. D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries in Florida says...'This is not law, this is the consequence of the Court's abandonment of the...Constitution.'"

AP via Beaufort Gazette: "'We were surprised to find that physicians were as religious as they apparently are,' said Dr. Farr Curlin, a researcher at the University of Chicago's MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Eth-ics. 'There's certainly a deep-seated cultural idea that science and religion are at odds,' and previous studies have suggested that fewer than half of scientists believe in God, Curlin said Wednesday. A previous survey showed about 83 percent of the general population be-lieves in God. But while medicine is science-based, doctors differ from scientists who work primarily in a laboratory setting, and their direct contact with patients in life-and-death situations may explain the differing views, Curlin said. The study is based on responses to questionnaires mailed in 2003."  

Brazilian law professor Augusto Zimmermann in News Weekly: "In 390, Bishop Ambrose, located in Milan, forced Emperor Theodosius to repent of his vin-dictive massacre of 7,000 people. The fact indicates that under the influence of Christianity, nobody, not even the Roman emperor, would be above the law. And in the 13th century, Franciscan nominalists were the first to elaborate legal theories of God-given rights, as individual rights derived from a natural order sustained by God's immutable laws of 'right reason.' For these medieval thinkers, not even the king himself could vio-late certain rights of the subject, because the idea of law was attached to the Bible-based conception of justice. The notion that law and liberty are inseparable from one another is a another legacy of Christianity."

AP writer Robert Weller via Napa News: "A Pen-tagon investigation into complaints that evangelical Christians at the Air Force Academy have bullied Jews and cadets of other faiths found no overt discrimination, but 'certainly insensitivity,' military officials said Wed-nesday. 'There is a lack of awareness on the part of some faculty and staff, and perhaps some senior cad-ets, as to what constitutes appropriate expressions of faith,' said Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, Air Force deputy chief of staff for personnel. The investigators' report said aca-demy leaders and the Air Force should clarify policies on religious expression so religious minorities do not feel discriminated against or pressured....Brady said some problems were related to the maturity level of cadets ages 18 to 22."

CNSNews: "In the current issue of its quarterly maga-zine Intelligence Report, the Southern Poverty Law Cen-ter contends that 'religious leaders have engaged in 30 years of name-calling and bogus "science" in their at-tack on gays....' In response, the spokesman for one pro-family group said it's the SPLC that is 'engaging in hate speech.' Another conservative said his group wears the criticism from the SPLC as a 'badge of honor.' ...the SPLC's latest Intelligence Report contains a timeline of the 'anti-gay movement' from Anita Bryant's efforts to re-peal a 'gay rights' ordinance in Florida in 1977 to the pre-sent. In an editorial, SPLC spokesman Mark Potok ass-erted that 'the religiously based crusade against homo-sexuals in America' reached a turning point when the Supreme Court...struck down anti-sodomy laws."

Agape Press: "prominent black conservative Jesse Lee Peterson, founder of the Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny (BOND), believes the DNC chairman is likelier to help the Republican cause than to win Democratic support from among GOP ranks. 'Howard Dean is a racist,' Peterson says. 'Howard Dean is good for the Republican Party and, in a way, bad for the Democrats, because he exposes what they are about.' Harking back to the Democratic leader's recent charac-terization of the GOP as 'pretty much a white, Christian party,' Peterson asserts that Dean is only 'speaking what's on the hearts and minds of many of the white, racist, elitist, liberal Democrats.' [He says] white Dem-ocrats 'do not respect black Americans,' and "think that we're not capable of taking care of ourselves...'"

Seattle PI: "'We believe that God has been opening our eyes to acts of God that we had not known how to see before,' the church said in a document...'the eligibility for ordination of those in covenanted same-sex unions.' Setting out the U.S. case, Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam said the church believed 'a person living in a same-gendered union may be eligible to lead the flock of Christ.' The U.S. church presented its position in a 130-page document, 'To Set Our Hope on Christ.' It argued that 'members of the Episcopal Church have discerned holiness in same-sex relationships and have come to support...the ordination or consecration of per-sons in those unions.' In this, the document said, Episcopal-ians were in a theological tradition of debate and difference stretching back to the early Christians.”

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